Anything But
by Ann-Yi Chan
Summary: "If you haven't noticed, this is anything but reality." he said calmly. Kagome looked up at the sliver haired man, her stared in wonder. "In fact, this is probably you're worst nightmare. You're going to regret this sweetie."


Two birds fluttered by. Kagome looked out the window, into the bright, endless, blue sky. The boring history teacher droned on about...whatever they learning right now. Kagome didn't really pay attention in this class, it was just so boring! She wasn't even sure what his name was. That's how boring the class was. Kagome rested her head on her hand, and glanced at the teacher and the board. The teacher was short, and pudgy, growing grey hairs around his ears. Kagome also grimaced at the sight of the teacher's rolls on his neck. She shuddered and turned back to the window, continuing to daydream.

"Saski! Tell me the answer to number 4!" Mr. Takeda whipped his book on the top of Kagome's desk, bringing her back to reality. Kagome cringed, now wishing she had been paying attention. She looked over to her friend, Eri, praying she had the answer. Eri rolled her eyes and mouthed 'B'.

"The answer..is B." Kagome said finally. She let her self-release the breath she had been holding in. Kagome mouthed back toEri, 'Thanks'.

The teacher looked disappointed that Kagome got the answer correct, but he just went back to teaching his boring, old, subject. After getting off the hook, Kagome went back to her thoughts, of being bored, counting the minutes until the class ended.

"Hey! Wait Kagome!" Eri called. Kagome stopped to wait for the other girl, while readjusting her backpack. "You know you barely got off the hook there!" Eri nagged. Eri looked a lot like Kagome, in the sense that they were both medium height, had brown hair, brown eyes, etc. But if you look closely, you would notice that Kagome has small freckles, and Eri has a slightly rounder face and has wavy hair. "Are you even listening to me?" Eri asked.

"Truth be told, not really." Kagome's nonchalant voice replied.

Eri sighed. _Typical Kagome.._ "Anyways, how did you do on your math test?" The pair was already reached the doors that lead outside, where all the other people were eating their lunches. "I got a 98 on mine… only one problem was wrong!" Eri fist pumped in the air.

"Why do you have to be so smart?" Kagome whined. "I only got a 90! And I studied and everything! I think it's just impossible for me to get about a 95..." She grumbled. As they continued to talk, the two girls walked up the hill to sit underneath the gigantic tree. The leaves blocked the blinding sun, and they watched other kids roam the courtyard. Suddenly, and sound of thumping came rushing up the hill, light brown hair could be seen from where Kagome was sitting. _ Oh no..._She inwardly groaned.

"Kagome! There you are. I've been looking all over for you!" The boy panted. He put his hands on his knees, and took deep breaths. "I just wanted to give this to you!" It was a charm bracelet, with a heart that said 'I love you'.

_Another gift!? I don't even know what to do with all the other ones he's given me! _ "Ah. Thank you Hojo." Kagome stiffly said, and took the charm bracelet. It wasn't that Hojo was ugly or anything, actually Hojo was probably everything but ugly. He had light, brown, wispy hair and played basketball. Hojo was also sweet and somewhat smart; despite the jock stereotype. But the reason Kagome _didn't _like him was because he was incredibly dull. He just talked about the same things over and over again! And he was sometimes..too nice. Sickenly nice. It was disgusting. Some girls would love to be in Kagome's place, being showered by gifts every week from Hojo, but all Kagome wanted was for him to leave her _alone. _But being the nice person that she is, she never declined the gifts, only occasionally went on dates with him because she didn't want to hurt his feelings.

"So anyways… I was wondering if you wanted to come to..." Hojo mumbled, but kept on talking.

"Ooh. So lover-boy is back?" Eri whispered and wiggled her eyebrows. She smiled, and her eyes held mirth in them.

Kagome looked over at her in shock. "No! Don't ever say that again!" Kagome whispered back, nearly hitting her with her books.

"So what do you say Kagome? Do you wanna come?" Hojo said, getting whatever confidence he had, back.

_Crap...maybe I should take Eri's advice and listen better next time..._ "Um…sure." Kagome said hesitantly. _ What am I getting myself into!?_ She shot Eri a worried look, but he so called 'best friend' just merely shrugged her shoulders, and looked in the other direction.

"Great! I'll meet you after school so we can walk to the house. Oh yeah, some of my other friends are coming too, I hope that's okay." Hojo waved and walked back down the hill.

Throughout the day, Kagome completely forgot about the date she had agreed to, until she was reminded by Hojo's happy face, and hyper wave. She silently laughed to herself; _He looks like a little kid getting ice cream. _On the outside, Kagome politely waved back, and forced a small smile on to her face. She actually really didn't want to go, her teachers had assigned a bunch of homework that night, and she still had to pick her brother up from school. And, on top of that, Hojo was really dull. _Kinda like the history teacher.._ "So where are we going?" Kagome asked.

Hojo looked at her, "Oh, you'll see. I want it to be a surprise." His voice, normally high pitched, seemed anomaly deeper. As they rounded a corner, Kagome got a glimpse of Hojo's face. His eyes were a bright green, neon green to be exact. She gasped, but then as soon as she saw it, his eyes were back to their normal brown. "What's wrong, Kagome?" He asked.

Kagome tried to calm herself down, she dried her sweaty palms on her blue skirt. _Stupid uniform. _But that image wouldn't leave her head. The green eyes, the deep voice, that was definitely _not _Hojo. Kagome was just about to say 'she had to leave', when Hojo said "We're here."

It was an abandoned house. The paint was peeling off of the walls, and some of the windows were broken. Black vines crept up the house; it weaved in and out of the thresholds. The wooden steps creaked with every movement, almost breaking with the weight of Hojo and Kagome. "Are you sure this is the place..?" She hesitantly asked, Kagome turned around to see Hojo's face. He only nodded his head urgently and slightly pushed her up the steps. "Are you really, really sure? Like 200% sure? Cause it doesn't look like it's the right place." Kagome tried to stall, one thing was for sure, she did _not_ want to go into that house. "Technically we're trespassing right now...I think my mom wanted me home right away! Sorry Hojo! I guess I'll have to go…"

Hojo chuckled a low, deep chuckle. "No, I think she'll be fine without you around for now." and on that note, he quickly shoved Kagome into the old house, and leaned on the door, preventing her from opening it. Hojo grabbed a circular object from his pocket, tapped it once and it came to life; projecting a blue light. In his deep voice, Hojo robotically said, " She's in. Board up every possible entrance." Soon, black streaks whizzed by, and covered all entrances and exits, the stickiness seeping into every crack. At this point, no one could get in, and no one could get out. Before leaving, Hojo sealed the door by writing a encryption on it, and with a quick move of his fingers, Kagome was trapped.

Kagome pounded on the door, begging for Hojo to open up. She heard him speak to someone, using a deep and terrifying voice. Then, everything went black. All the light had been sucked out of the room, leaving Kagome in complete darkness. She crouched on the floor, her heart pumping a mile a minute. Kagome then started to explore the house, moving very subtly, creeping around corners. On the first floor, there was an antique piano, along with broken furniture, in the next room, wooden chairs laid spewed across the room. The kitchen had dark spots all over the walls and cabinets. _I really hope that isn't blood…_ Kagome thought.

The next step was to go upstairs. The stairs themselves weren't that bad, or really that dangerous. It's what they held above them that scared Kagome. She carefully trudged up the stairs and into the narrow hallway that split into other rooms. Kagome stopped at the first one and slowly opened it.

In the darkness Kagome was able to make out a few shapes and objects. There was a desk, a bookshelf, and a chair. Like an office, for a nice family, from what Kagome had seen. Minus the family. Kagome stepped in, and a cold shiver rippled through her body. She could barely make out the lump in the corner, the lump that was barely moving. Its' side moving up and down in a rhythmic pattern as if it were a person sleeping. Kagome took another step in, and the floorboard creaked.

Red eyes, opened from the back corner, and glared at Kagome, looking her over, trying to predict her next move. The red light illuminated other objects in the room, giving it a ghostly glow to it.

Kagome was trying her best to keep her breathing even, to try and settle her heart beat. Her back was drenched with sweat, and her clothes were sticking to her body, despite the chill that wouldn't leave the room. Kagome mind screamed at her to run, to get away somehow, but her legs seemed to be glued to their spot, and her eyes in a trance, not believing what she saw before her. Then, within seconds, the thing in corner, lashed out, shooting long arms in every direction. Without any weapon to defend herself with, Kagome did the only thing that she could do.

Her breath was a fast, shallow pant. Kagome's rubber soles hit the floor. Rushing from the adrenaline, Kagome sharply turned left and tripped over a piece of wood sticking out from the floor boards. It jabbed her in the leg, piercing her skin. Kagome quickly got up, groaning in the process. _Why did I listen to so called 'Hojo'!? _Whipping around another corner, Kagome barely escaped the monster's long, tentacles.

Kagome dashed into a small room, diverging from the narrow hallway, she hastily locked the door. It looked like a little kid's room, there was a twin sized bed, with a small dresser and some toy trains. There was also a desk with a small chair. She let out an exasperated sigh. The adrenaline was wearing off; Kagome now realized how much danger she was in. Her cell phone was in her backpack, which, while in the process of running, she had dropped it because of all its heavy contents. _Great...just great.._ Seeing as there was nothing else to do, Kagome sat down, and waited. She waited to see what fate had in store for her, whether it be good or bad, Kagome knew she was going to come out of this alive. She had to.

Before hiding in the tiny closet, Kagome had moved all of the objects in the room, against the door. She knew it wouldn't stop the monster, but at least it would stall him. Kagome squished up as far as she could in the back of the room. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain, looked down to her left thigh. Right below her ugly uniform's skirt, was a long gash, about three inches long, gushing out blood. Kagome hissed in pain, as she tried to straighten out her leg. Her white shirt also had blood on it from crouching down. Kagome managed to tear off the sleeve of her shirt and use it as a makeshift bandage. _At least it'll soak up the bleeding for now. _

Trying to forget about the ache still throbbing in her left thigh, Kagome sat propped up against the tiny wall. For hours she sat there, no sign of the horrid creature. But all too soon, trudging footsteps came to the door. "I've found you, little girl," a raspy voice said. "Why don't you come on out?" Its voice scary and menacing. "We can have lots of fun and play together."

Kagome stayed silent, pushing her back up against the wall. She prayed that he wouldn't open the door.

"You don't want to come out?" It chuckled. "Too bad little girl. I guess I'll just have to come in." Using its brute strength, the demon knocked down the flimsy door, and broke all the objects in its path. It's slimy body slithered/ walked into the room. "Oh you're hiding now? How sweet...you actually think that I won't find you…and that you'll get out of this alive" Kagome's breath pattern turned ragged, laced with fear. The demon broke the door open easily, as if he were breaking a twig. It's evil, red eyes, looked down upon her, and he had a wicked smile upon his face. "Are you ready to die little girl?"

"Why does everyone call me little!?" Kagome said defiantly, and then clasped her hands over her mouth, accidently hitting her wound. Kagome's hand recoiled.

"Oh? Do you have a cut? Poor baby." Crouching in front of Kagome, he reached out to touch Kagome's face. He grabbed her chin and pulled it forward. "Let me end you're suffering nice and quickly." The monster's had turned into a black, solid, sharp knife, and he raised his hand ready to strike. "It was nice meeting you, but now it's time to say goodbye.." He said in fake sympathy.

_I don't think so…_ "No." She whispered. "So DON'T TOUCH ME!" Kagome screamed. Using all of her strength, Kagome pushed the demon off of her. When doing so, a bright pink light shot out from her hand, making the demon disintegrate. Amazed, and shocked at the same time, Kagome looked down at her hands in wonder.


End file.
